1927-8, built as Commercial Gas Company offices and showrooms

This was the site of the Dolphin public house by the early nineteenth century.
The premises were rebuilt in 1927–8 for the Commercial Gas Company as offices
and showrooms, in neo-Georgian brick with a canted corner. Victor Wilkins was
the architect, with Walter Lawrence & Son Ltd the builders. The North
Thames Gas Board was here into the 1970s. Above a faience fascia the upper
storeys were Lewis Sheldon’s garment factory. Clothing wholesaling continued
and the shop premises became a branch of the Islamic Bank of Britain
(established in 2004), conveniently situated opposite the East London
Mosque.1

Lewis Sheldon, garment manufacturerContributed by mrspozzie on June 27, 2017

My grandfather ran a successful garment factory from the floors on the upper
part of this building. Access was from a side door in Greatorex Street as the
shop on the ground floor was used by British Gas. I went there as a child
often after he died as it continued to be run by my mum’s stepmother for some
time.

I remember going there with my mother in the 1950s. While she paid the bill, I
stood and stared at the gas fixtures that provided light. I was used to
electric lights, naturally. Years later, it dawned on me why they used gas
instead of electricity to light their premises...

We had a coin-fed gas meter in our flat, so perhaps she was there to make
payments on the Ascot water-heater.

Not far from there, men from the garment industry would congregate on the
pavement (sidewalk for Americans!) - I don't know for sure, but I imagine that
was the place that the workshop owners would come to hire workers.

Walking past the gas shop in the 1950sContributed by patricia on July 17, 2017

To walk to Whitechapel Road, we would go down Greatorex Street, passing the
bomb sites on the street, the little houses and the factories opposite Great
Garden Street, turn left at the corner of Whitechapel Road, and pass by the
Gas Shop, a shoe repair shop next door, Adolph Cohen Hair stylist (where Vidal
Sassoon got his start), then Dolcis shoes and continued walking, past Davenant
School, where my husband went to school, past Vallance Road, and go shopping
along the Waste. I got my first record player plus three records at Wally for
Wireless next to Whitechapel Station. There was always music playing along the
Waste. Barrow boys calling out the price of fruit and veg. In the winter they
had fires going to keep warm and to roast chestnuts plus lights everywhere
when it got dark early. You could also get to Whitechapel High Street by going
through Old Montague Street, but I never liked going that way as the houses
were old and dilapidated. It was a bit scary as a child.